The present invention relates in general to towed trailing vehicles, and in particular to a new and useful running carriage which is meant to be coupled to the torso of a person who is jogging or walking so that a child sitting in the carriage can be taken along during exercise sessions.
Heretofor, a jogger who was responsible for a small child had few options when seeking exercise. The jogger would either have to secure the services of a baby- sitter or utilize a conventional carriage which the jogger pushed while jogging. This arrangement is quite unstable however and, at the very least, required the jogger to jog slowly.
A wide variety of sulkies are known which comprise a frame for receiving a seated individual, and a pair of wheels rotatably mounted to the frame. A tongue or towing bar extends forwardly of the frame and can be engaged to a variety of draft mechanisms such as horses in the case of the sulkies used for racing, bicycles, motor vehicles such as motor cycles, or even human beings in the case of a rickshaw.
A two wheeled buggy for receiving an occupant and meant to be towed by bicycle is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,733 to Cox and U.S. Pat. No. 3,271,048 to Beesley. A two-wheeled trailer for hauling a load using a motorcycle is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 2,343,019 to Neal. A one- wheeled vehicle to be towed by a bicycle is also disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 660,598 to Stonebridge. Carriages to be towed by an individual and for carrying a specific or generalized load is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 328,043 to Johnson and U.S. Pat. 4,838,565 to Douglas et al.
Where a carriage for receiving a child is to be towed by a running or walking individual, although the sulky or rickshaw configuration is appropriate, special consideration is required beyond the insights provided by the above-identified patents.
Firstly, because the carriage will have to be stored in a residential setting, thought should be given to making the carriage collapsible and compact for storage. It is also important to avoid transmitting the valiant movements of the jogger to the child sitting in the carriage. This too has not been fully addressed by the prior art.